Soup?
by Certainly-Not-A-Writer
Summary: It was a boring, rainy night for Sunohara Youhei. Little did he know that an uninvited guest would change everything. The outcome, though, is uncertain. Rated T for some coarse language and mild adult themes. May contain OOC. Please Review!
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer: I, (insert my uber-long pen name here), swear to all sentient, fanfic-reading beings out there (LOL:D) that I DO NOT own Clannad, nor it's characters and/or anything else that is associated with it and has Key and Kyo Ani's names branded on them. What I do own is the story contained in this fic and this fic alone. I am not making money out of this (for it's just my hobby)._**

**_Author's note: I just wondered how Sunohara Youhei would spend a 'seemingly' boring rainy night. Thanks for looking the fic up and please enjoy (and _****_review. :D)_**

**_Also, lots of thanks to Chromate for beta reading this for me. _**

**_Now, onwards with the fic!_**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 1:<strong>_

_**Cucurbita Soup for your battered soul**_

A rainy night. Bright lightning, followed by deafening thunder kept flickering outside Youhei's windows. Spatters of droplets pounded on the glass. The gale of wind whistled through all the nooks and crannies. And there he was, legs tucked under the warm cotton sheets of a kotatsu, his body enrobed in a thick sweater. Strange weather they were having in Hikarizaka that evening. It was very much unlike those rains in summer where everything remained hot. Now, when the storms poured down, the chilling coldness got into the bone. And it was just May.

There was nothing planned for tonight, of course. He did want to go to the arcade but, judging by the endless spatter, he would be soaking wet when he would somehow manage to get there. He could call home, and tell Mei and mom that he was alright and have a little chat. But the reason for _why _exactly he should do that didn't enter his thought.

He put it aside. From below his shelf, he jerked out his copy of the school newspaper they gave around the dorm and turned a few pages. He came across articles that had pictures of colorful booths and girls in maid outfits. The titles went, 'Seniors open new fun booths' or 'Freshmen carry out _Kabuki _play'. There was even 'Juniors open up maid café; extremely popular with the hombres'. _"During the festival, students of class 2-A and Class 2-B challenged the Seniors by opening up a maid café for everyone to come to. What a way to raise their pride as Juniors! There was so much support from everybody, including the student council in the form of-" _He turned the page since it got pretty boring to read the rest of it. He didn't know what the hell a 'hombre' was (a kind of German sausage?), but he knew one thing: all those articles were about the Founder's Festival.

So it must've been pretty ironic (or humorous, really) to put the one line blurb, 'Founder's Fest canceled due to _irreconcilable events _', on the front page. _Was the faculty still trying to hide it? _He was there on the day of that incident and it was the most dangerous thing he got himself into. But, it was a pretty isolated case, nothing more. No one else knew about it but some unlucky shumucks like himself. They even made him shut his mouth about it in exchange for more months in his dorm room. The staff's desperation told him something he should've known from the start. He understood it somehow now.

There was no use making other students panic by telling them all that their school was attacked by delinquents.

Writing that day off as another piece of cool memory, he went on doing other stuff. Wriggling his toes became too boring of an act to kill time, so he decided to count all the spatters on the window. He even killed off the room lights for they let him see through the glass. Beyond that was a streetlamp that lit it in such a way that the droplets would be very visible. It was very stupid, of course.

But then again, he made his name being worse than that.

On his bed, in the dark, he started counting and he felt heavy. He started feeling drained. The cold weather was suitable, no, perfect for sleeping. It made him feel relaxed on his soft mattress. Also, he had nothing to do; nothing at all. He could just leave everything at the back of his mind so he could be ready for tomorrow. So then, his eyes started closing. Keeping them both open was so much of a struggle that when he opened one eye, the other closed. And slowly, gradually, he fell to sleep…

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

_What the hell? _He rose and flickered on the lights. Who would come at this hour? He would forgive the person if it was Misae-san or some hot girl who came just for him. But other than that, then he would have the thirst to kill.

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

A familiar voice came from behind it. "Open up, this thing's heavy."

The loud knocking was getting annoying. He started wishing that doors could be made soundproof. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin', sheesh..."

Opening it, he was going to give whoever it was a piece of his mind. The first thing that he saw was a large bowl of something red (or orange) wrapped with kitchen plastic. It was so near that one step and it would get shoved in his face.

"Soup…?" He craned to its side. "Who would…?"

He paused, the weight of a slight dropping chin being too heavy to talk with. He put on that face people made whenever they met a travelling salesman at their door in the middle of the night. But, in his opinion, the person before him that moment was a hundred times worse than that. "Oh, crap."

"Is there something wrong with bringing Cucurbita soup?"

Those two blue eyes stared at him like how shady strangers in overcoats interrogated their targets with just one sharp look.

"No." He said, since answering made him sound smart. "But what the hell are you doing here in this kind of weather, Tomoyo?"

The familiar figure was none other than his immortal rival, Sakagami Tomoyo, carrying that large bowl. She was wet from the shoulder-up, the upper-half of her black turtleneck sweater smocked with water drops while her usually silvery hair was now filled with streaks of beige.

"None of your concern." She shoved herself through the door, cautious not to spill her luggage, and looked around, contemplating the untidy stacks of manga, the piles of clothes, and a large open cup of instant noodles that must've been unsealed and left untouched for at least three days. Then she gave a petulant sigh. "This place is _still _a dump…"

"Hey, what're you calling a dump?" He just cleaned it that afternoon for two minutes, which was the longest time he had ever spent on tidying his space. "This is my manly bachelor pad, you know."

"More like 'Weird pervert's lair that smells like-'"

"Don't even say it." He looked outside the door to see if anyone was accompanying her. "May I ask why you are here, _ma'am?_" He asked in a sarcastic, derogatorily stiff tone. It was one of his passes at her for she never addressed him as a senior. Never. He wanted just one 'Sunohara-senpai' from her, that's all. Why couldn't this confounded underclassman see and/or respect the hierarchy system that had built Japanese high school culture? He had to enact at least _some _revenge on her.

"You don't have to be overly-formal," she scoffed. "Give me a towel first; I'm soaking."

He was busy staring at her light brown hair and wondered how useful it was to have two different hair colors at one time, although more of his attention was on how tightly her soaked shirt clung to her well-developed body. "Uh… sure. Just wait."

He opened a drawer and threw a folded piece of thick fabric onto the Kotatsu. "There."

She noted the throwing with mild distaste, but didn't let the feeling get to her and shrugged it off. So she put both her load and her headband onto the table and dried her hair vigorously, being careful not to make it so messy as to require another brush up.

"Hey, Tomoyo, can you tell me what the hell you're doing here in the middle of the night?"

She was done drying her hair so she threw the towel back at him. "I came to see if Tomoya was here."

_Oh yeah, Tomoyo has always been looking for Tomoya…_

"Do I look like his keeper? Isn't it obvious he's not here?"

…_That's what a couple usually does, right?_

She blew out some air in disappointment. "Where is he, then?"

"Home," he replied simply. "Down with the cold like the most of us. Of all people, it's _you _who should know _that_."

"That's why I brought him soup."

"You know where his house is. Why not bring it there? And besides, going here in this type of weather's stupid. Especially if you're lugging around that large bowl of… whatever it is that you're holding."

"You're the one to talk. Besides…" she pointed at the window, "the taxi I took broke down."

Wondering if Okazaki's house was far enough as to require the use of a taxi (albeit with an expensive fare), he opened the window and only rain greeted him, flinging wet drops of chills into his face. Through the howling wind he could see a silhouette with a yellow coat dotting around a white car. He guessed that the driver must've been having a hard time fixing it.

"Of all places your taxi could break down, it had to be here."

She shrugged. "Minor coincidence, I guess."

_Why not get another taxi? _He asked himself. Why would Tomoyo drop by in the first place? There were a lot of other places she could take refuge in, not his just his hovel of a dorm room. Even if she came here, wouldn't it be more logical if she went looking for Misae-san, whom she held a lot of respect for, instead? Basing on how strange it was for her to come to his room _in the middle of the night _and how killers in movies usually tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible, he formulated what was probably the smartest hypothesis he had ever made.

"You came here to kill me, didn't 'ya?" He bellowed. "There's no other explanation as to why you'd come here at night!" In a mad, almost alcoholic daze due to extreme paranoia, he scrambled for the baseball bat he had under his bed.

Standing up, he got into a stance. "Well, I'm gonna take you out first!"

She sighed out of pity as he charged, while he was being desperate in proving (and thwarting) his possible assassination. With defiance deep in his throat he jumped over the table and was about to crack her skull. Success was in his grasp…

In a blinding flash of blue, a flurry of blows broke Youhei's face and some ribs, and it so happened to be that he forgot to close the window he had just opened. He rocketed through it and found himself crashing on the cold, hard cement sidewalk. His head hit first, and he found himself ending up nothing short of a run-down corpse, soaking in the rain.

After getting tired of looking indifferently at him, Tomoyo slid the windows shut and took a sigh of relief, feeling glad at the achievement she just got. Then the room's door creaked open, and through it a hand came in, then an arm, and finally a blond head whose whole face was blotched with mud and scars.

He laid there, still as an old cadaver. Then, his mouth wobbled in pain, "T-T-Three hundred… sixty-five..." He gave a tired guffaw. "Damn you…"

"That's what you get for threatening me," she said.

The blond was about to bark back at her when he noticed how dirty his shirt now looked like. "Crap," he muttered, "I need to change."

"And that affects me, how?"

"If you want to see me naked, then all you need to do is-"

A sharp, stinging pain pierced through his shin that made him fall flat on his floor. He could have been fine had his head not hit his doorframe.

"Eeeeeowwww…! My head!"

"Pervert," the student council president said as she withdrew her foot and made her way out his room without any other protest.

Some moments after she got out, Youhei stood up, shaking his head. Then he went to get a fresh change of clothes, and applied a substance that matched his skin on his face to cover his scars (_Gotta' look handsome, right?)_. He heard a knock on his door, and he said she could come in.

"Thanks. Well then…" she tucked her legs under the kotatsu. "I won't be able to get to Tomoya's in this weather."

"Don't you have an umbrella?" He inquired.

"It wasn't raining when I finished the soup."

Thinking that it would be very annoying to have Tomoyo in his place, he looked under his bed again. His umbrella must be in there somewhere… After a few more moments of rummaging he grunted, then drew away from the bed's innards.

"What are you looking for in there?" She asked.

He muttered, "Crap, that bastard hasn't returned it yet…"

His comment caught her curiosity. "Who are you talking about?"

It was best for her not to find out. "No one you'd care about." If she did find out about the person he called a bastard, then he would either have to dig his own grave or exchange faces with a dog.

"I'll have to stay here for a while. Either when the taxi's fixed or when the rain stops." She curved a little half-smile. "It wouldn't be that much of a bother to you, right?"

He looked at her. Tomoyo staying at his place? He was kind of worried since he was thinking what would happen if Okazaki found out. It would be okay with him, right? Imagine, your BFF's girlfriend spending a rainy night at your place…

_Alone with you_.

Wow, this would be entertaining.

Okazaki would understand. For sure.

"Sure, why not?" he said, "As long as you don't do any funny business, alright?"

"It's you I'm worried about."

"Like hell I'd do something to you."

"Oh, I forgot. It's not me you're interested in, it's…what's her name again…?" she made an impish smile, the sort his beloved would usually make. "Fujibayashi, right?"

He sat on the side of the table across from her and said crisply, "Fujibayashi Kyou."

She nodded. "Yes, yes, Fujibayashi Kyou. How are things going with the…" She stopped sneering. "…Courting?"

In an instant, his face blushed. "H-hey, I'm not hittin' on her…"

"Stop lying, Tomoya told me everything. You don't have to be that secretive."

_Damn you, Okazaki._"…Alright. What I'll tell you now is that it's going super-well. We might even go on a date tomorrow." The truth was it wasn't. He was really embarrassed about it since well, it wasn't going on that well. And besides, who was Tomoyo to meddle in his business? She didn't have even a sliver of authority to ask him.

"Yeah, but reality and your face are telling me otherwise."

Unfortunately, she was right. Didn't she just mention that Tomoya told her everything, and along with the fact that he also told Tomoya almost everything? "So what if I failed? I suck at mushy stuff like wooing girls."

"Yesterday, Tomoya told me about the time you brought her flowers and danced."

"He was with me the whole time, you know. Told me all the steps."

"Uh-huh. And he was laughing behind a vending machine when he saw you actually did it."

"It's called the thriller and it's not weird!"

"In the eighties, it wasn't."

_Note to self: Never, ever,ever listen to Okazaki_. "Anyway, courting Kyou's hard. Very hard."

Those painful memories (and those endless yen bills he had to use) were still fresh in his mind.

"Tomoya just asked me 'If you could be my girl' and _I _said yes."

He gave her a miserable smile, as though he was mocking himself. Of course Okazaki did. Since when had his best friend not got anything he wanted, even if he didn't mean to? He's the lucky guy, and he's just the poor idiot spending endless nights dreaming of dating another girl. All that certainly made him feel much better tonight, with Okazaki's girl lecturing him on how to court girls. This night just couldn't get any better.

After a few moments of awkward silence, he asked matter-of-factly, "So, what are you gonna do with that soup?"

She was kind of surprised at this question. "Bring it to Tomoya's, of course."

"Cucurbita sucks when it's cold."

Now she knew his plot. "Then I'll reheat it once I get there."

Sorry, Plan A failed. Execute Plan B, now!

He clasped his hands together and made a desperate 'beggars-only' face. "Please let me eat some!"

She made a chortle at Youhei making a fool out of himself. "Beg and maybe I will."

He stood up, and got on his knees. "Please let me eat some! Pretty, pretty please!"

She smiled at this pathetic example of manliness. "No wonder Tomoya has fun doing this…"

"Gimme some soup now."

"Give me a bowl."

"Why? Can't I just spoon it from the…"

That disgusted blue stare told him everything he needed to know.

He looked away, ashamed, and then gulped. "…Okay, I'll get a bowl."

"Get two bowls."

There were two bowls to pick from: a china glass one (which he lifted from the neighbors to take some revenge. He hoped that they never find out) or a sleek ceramic one his mother sent him a week ago. "Why?"

"I'm hungry, too."

Fearing that something might happen to the expensive stuff, he instead picked out two plastic bowls with spoons and gave a set to Tomoyo.

She took hers quite gratefully. "Thanks."

She took away the plastic wrap and the smell of Pumpkins filled the room. He sniffed around, whilst looking around his room. "You sure the smell won't stick?"

"Don't worry; it'll be gone in two days."

"Two days?" That was because a room scented with the smell of autumn food wasn't exactly popular back then.

She took his bowl. "Just stay quiet and I'll give you your fill."

A few minutes later he finished eating. Unexpectedly, Tomoyo offered him seconds, saying that there was too many soup for one sick man. They ate in silence, the background dinner music being the spattering of rain. Kind of boring, he thought.

"Hey, Tomoyo."

"What?"

"How was your day?"

"Do you want me to kick you?"

"I was just asking how your day was!"

"Who are you and what have you done to Sunohara?"

"It's me, damn it!"

"You said you wanted me to kick you until you squeal and your bones break? Sure, then."

"You sadist!"

As he thought he was going to die, she chuckled. "I was kidding, don't worry. I'll only waste my energy if I kick you. Anyway, you were asking?"

Now he wished he had a tape recorder. "How was your day, _ma'am?_"

"Fine, thank you."

"What the hell?" He pointed his spoon at her. "After all my trouble and getting threatened to be kicked, you're just gonna say 'Fine, thank you'?"

"What do you want me to say, '_Not fine_, thank you'?"

"Don't be a smartass; I'm already asking you decently here!"

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you." she spooned up some soup, slightly annoyed. "It was boring at most. Did nothing but some paperwork in the council office. Then I lectured a few students about how bad it is to be late for class. Then I spent the rest of the day in study hall."

His eyes widened. "Woah, that long?"

"Our teacher is pretty lazy."

He clapped. "Wow, even the student council president has her sentiments."

"That's the only one, though."

Secretly, glee started coursing in his brain. Good, she didn't noti-

"By the way, Sunohara…"

He slurped in his bowl. "What?"

She climbed onto the kotatsu, bent over like a four-legged feline across it as she drew her face close. The cat had just cornered her little mouse. He was shivering in his knees like crazy as he smelled the cucurbita in her breath.

"Why didn't you go to school today?" she asked.

_Hiii…! She found out! _"I was uh, sick…?"

She drew back to her side across the table and sighed. "…You're hopeless."

"Not really…" He crinkled his brow, his defense mechanism kicking in due to instinct and habit. "I'm trying to make something out of myself too, you know."

"What, a female bra inspector?"

_Huh? _"No."

"Voyeur photographer."

"What the heck?"

She raised a finger, trying to set up the atmosphere for her narration. "Ah, I got it. You'll rent yourself a dark basement and you will start your life as a used female underwear collector."

"Like hell that'll happen!"

"Then, you'll want to be a pornography actor."

He tried imagining it… **The horror!** (And the good stuff that comes along with it!) "What kind of freak do you take me for?"

"A perverted one." She took his bowl. "More soup?"

As though he instantly forgot what happened just now, he happily reached her a bowl for seconds. "Yes, please."

She poured him more Cucurbita and got another bowlful for herself too.

"Now that's settled…" She took some in a spoon. "I want to ask you something."

"You asking me?" He blew out some air. "Ain't that something new…"

"I would like to know what's happening to you and Kyou."

The flabbergasting came first before the hair-raising of his skin. Why bring that up now? "You're a stubborn one yourself, aren't 'ya? I told you already, it's super-hard. No, wait, it's _supra-_hard. Like, it's so difficult that it needs a new word."

Whenever he would talk with Kyou, he would sound fine but deep inside, his giblets were quaking. Whenever he would talk with the theater club girls (Nagisa-chan, for example), he would end up saying stupid things to keep up his 'talking fuel'(his absurd term for 'conversational topics') and make himself look cool (which did not). Whenever he would talk with other girls he did not know, he would sound and act twice as stupid and somehow scared the girls away. But when faced with girls like his younger sister, Mei, or older women like Misae, he would talk with great comfort and ease since he felt that none of them would judge his true personality. That was one of the few times he realized that he sounded like how Okazaki would normally talk.

And the only other girl that was almost his age he could talk to in that way turned out to be none other than Sakagami Tomoyo.

"You're exaggerating," she scoffed. "It can't be _that _hard. Is she pushing you too much or something?"

He realized that he sort of trailed off earlier. How he talked to girls could be dealt with another time. Now, he had to focus. If he could only tell her that supra-hard was an understatement. "On a normal day it goes like 'Youhei, get this' and 'Youhei, get that'. Then it turns into 'Youhei, go buy me drinks' or 'Youhei, go buy me lunch'…" he ranted.

"There's nothing hard about that," she said in a lecturing tone. "Maybe you are just complaining too much."

"Let me finish. Finally, it always ends in 'Youhei, take care of Botan for me'. That's what makes my day…" He let it trail off for anticipation. "… A living hell."

"Who's Botan?" She cocked her head to one side. "Someone I know?"

"More like _something _you know. You saw him before. He's that boar or whatever-it-is running around school during Founder's."

"Oh, that. I remember now." She smiled. "He was that little round thing with the cute nose, right?"

He raised a few fingers. "But I have to warn you. Botan can be summarized in three words," he took a deep breath and let out the words that had been in his mind for long, "Worst. Pet. Ever."

"Maybe it just doesn't like you that much."

That wretched boar-thing. He hated it. He hated it very much. He hated it with all his might. Whenever he saw that brown snout, he would have a bitter taste in his mouth. That thing caused so much pain, so much shame, so much humiliation that he would be more than happy as to see it served up in a hot bowl of _Miso_. It hated him first, so he had to hate it back. Basic human instinct, he would tell himself.

But then again, what was human instinct? Did it tell him that he should hate this boar just because it hated him? Or was it an effect of transference, that he hated it because of his stuck relationship with Kyou, so he put his stress and anger on that thing? He did not know anything about that philosophical nonsense. He just hated it, just like how other people pettily hated other things. He... just felt like he should.

Now he could get everything off his chest. "No way. It whines a lot. It cries a lot. It's hungry all the time. And the worst part is, it farts a lot. Kyou takes care of that little runt everyday and she doesn't have problems!" He sighed in dismay mixed with regret and let out a deep whine. "Whhhhhhhhyyyyy meee…?"

She raised a finger to make a point. "I told you already, it doesn't like you. It's obvious."

He grimaced, swore under his breath, and decided to drown all his sorrow in more soup.

"C'mon, tell me more," she said. "I don't usually listen in on other people's lives but yours sounds interesting." She made that smile people made in zoos when they try to encourage the animals to come close. "C'mon."

He glared at her. "It pissed on my lap."

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><p><strong><em>Well, that's the first segment of my fic. I hope you like it. I'll try to update in three days time or something like that so, to those who still want to read it, please wait and i'll get the chapter up in no time. Also, your comments are very important to me so please review so I can make my writing (and my English) better. Thank you very much!<em>**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own CLANNAD.**_

_**Author's note: Well, here it is, the second chapter of 'Soup'. I won't say anything but just please enjoy the fic and I hope you will find the story more interesting with this chapter. Please review!**_

_**Also, many thanks again to Chromate for beta reading this fic for me. **_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter two: Of maid dresses, soup, and a troubled past<strong>_

The statement was so sudden and unexpected that she didn't get most of it. "…What?"

"I said it pissed on my lap. I was keeping it in class when all of the sudden I felt something warm on my pants. The teacher was passing by and he said 'Sunohara, if you're going to relieve yourself then at least have the decency to wait until you get to the bathroom!' I was like 'huh?' and I noticed my pants were wet. It was the pig's fault but they didn't believe me since it can pretend that it's a damn stuffed toy! How screwed up is th-"

He stopped, seeing that Tomoyo turned her back on him, shoulders occasionally jolting. The strange chuckling sounds told him everything he needed to know. She was laughing.

"Oh sure, laugh at me. Ha ha, very funny. You know what happened next? I was so pissed that-"

Now she exploded into laughter, probably at his accidental pun. What a sense of humor she had.

"Pfah… Anyway, I was so mad that I planned to cook it with _Miso _in the reference room. I was going to chop it with a cleaver right there right now when all of the sudden, Kyou came." Waterfalls flowed down his cheeks. "And things didn't, uh, go too well from there…"

To his mild surprise, Tomoyo only muttered a short 'I see' without adding anything new to his story. The quietness in the room became unbearable that he wanted to break free from it. Staying silent with Tomoyo wasn't a bad thing, since it meant he wouldn't get kicked by any means. Yet his inner conscience told him that it was still rude to stay quiet when you're with another sex in the room. And in order to be 'the man', he should take the initiative.

"Let's just talk about something else." He spooned in some soup and, finally picking up a conversation topic, made a mischievous sneer. "Like the time you showed us all that you were very hot in a maid outfit."

Her eyes widened, and then she groaned. "You pervert."

"Why did 'ya end up there?" He sneered, accidentally letting some of his perverted nature leak. "I never knew you were into cosplaying as _Ayuzawa Misaki._"

Suddenly, she blushed, realizing she was being compared to such a character. She did recall her classmates commenting on how closely she resembled that fictional character, but still…"He-hey, our class was underhanded. One of the girls called in sick so I had to fill in."

He nodded casually and uttered, "I see, I see…"

She went on, "almost all the boys in the campus came there. We didn't even know if we would still have room so we had to make people establish reservations. In fact…" She directed her gaze at him. "_You _were our top customer."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong about visiting a student maid café during Founder's Fest, right?"

"Yes, but I caught you looking at us in inappropriate angles a number of times while you wasted all your money on ordering our food."

He raised a finger. "Cash well spent. If I had only known _you _were there, I would have brought more of my money." He looked at her in the eyes to express his point. "And a camera."

"Yeah, and Tomoya and I would beat you up afterwards."

He pouted. "At least I still have the camera."

"Then I'll smash it myself with a rock."

"I'll hide the film!"

"I'll find it and burn it to ashes."

He was going to make a rebuttal about him having the pictures developed the instant he took them, but that was impossible given the technological implications of his time. "Damn…"

There was some silence after that, but amidst all the awkwardness, a nostalgic smile emerged on Tomoyo's face.

"But still," she said, "that day was fun, right?"

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah." Then he scrunched up his face in… agony (?). "But seriously if I only brought my camera, I would… Bah, damn it!"

"Is that all you can think about?"

In an instant, his face wound up with a grin. "I was just kidding." Tomoyo had no forgiveness for his ranting. "Of course Founder's Festival was fun. It really was. Me and Okazaki-"

"Okazaki and I," she interjected. "Remember your proper grammar."

"Whatever." He got slightly annoyed by this. "I mean, _Okazaki and I _threw some wet sponges at some poor sod at the game booths. Then he went somewhere with you. Meanwhile, I was-"

"Harassing girls from other schools."

"Flirting is different from harassment, okay?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not called flirting when you follow the girl all over campus."

"Yeah, and some asshole in a bear suit kicked me for all my trouble." He groaned. "I still can't believe he would actually kick me even when I was just standing around, minding my own business…"

She didn't know how to react, but his obliviousness made her curve a hidden half-smile.

"You're the student council president, right?" His eyes begged for pity. "You should have been there to take care of that bear guy. Who knows, he would gone on a rampage and started raising skirts or something. That would have been lots of trouble." He made a stupid grin again. "But if _I _were the bear guy, that would have been great…"

She sighed, facepalmed as several unwanted images flashed through her mind. "And to think that I used the word 'pervert' only once a day back then."

"But now when you think of it…"

"Huh?"

He was now holding his chin, with his brows slightly crinkled together. He must've looked pretty strange, judging by how Tomoyo questioned him with a stare.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Her question did not receive any response for several minutes until her companion's eyes suddenly sparkled and he yelled in exclamation. "I got it!"

She un-girlishly slurped in some soup, having an intuition telling her this was another funny Sunohara moment. "Entertain me."

He took a deep breath. Then he looked grave. Maybe, he was going to say something really important, after all…

He stood. "It's a conspiracy, I tell you!"

She automatically coughed and facepalmed for the second time within a minute, as if it was actually customary habit and she had been waiting for this moment. "Not this again…"

"It is! The guy in the bear suit, he was the ring leader of it all." Youhei went mad-eyed. "Remember how those thugs got in the campus? He must have radioed them in or something and told them the coast was clear. He must have given them the bats and crowbars, too!"

She had heard this way before that night, but it still took her a good minute or two to digest all that nonsense just now. She felt like she needed to drink a whole box of aspirin just to tell herself that she just heard that.

She made a perturbed face. "…Living alone does do things to you..."

"I'm telling the truth here; it's a conspiracy!" He threw his arms in the air. "There's no other way those guys could have gotten in during founder's fest!"

"Besides going in through the front gate, sneaking in on their own, and blending in with students from the other schools?"

His mouth opened, and then closed. "Uh… It's still the bear guy's fault!"

The craziness had gone far enough for her. "Okay, okay Mister-perverted-conspiracy-theorist, just keep quiet." She extended her arm in his direction. "Give me your bowl."

"What for?" he drew it away from her like he was protecting it. "What are you gonna do to it?"

"You're so hungry that you're saying nonsense." She offered her palm. "You don't want soup?"

"Ah, sure."

They both filled up their bowls and ate in a ruminative manner. Youhei, wearing a bored expression quickly, attracted the sights of Tomoyo. And that made her decide to start yet another conversation.

"So, that's it?"

He raised a brow. "That's what?"

"With Fujibayashi," she said, "You're still going to continue with you know..." she shrugged casually, "Hitting on her?"

He started feeling like that conversation was some sort of battle between wits (or wit vs. halfwit, in his case), a psychological war where one tried to make the other crack and divulge anything as to the cracker's advantage. Why didn't he sense it before?

Yet it was _fun _to think of the chat as such, so he took it as a pretend psy-war mind game and imagined that Tomoyo was making preemptive strike after strike. Now it was his time to make potshots at her to find some stuff out. It might be pretty entertaining.

Finding a way in his brain to change the subject, Youhei told her this, "hey, I got an idea," in a tone that only an idiot would take as genuinely true.

She shifted her eyes toward him. "What?"

"Since I've been telling you about my courtship and stuff, how about I ask you about well..." he paused briefly, "... You and Okazaki"

Upon saying that, he saw her face turn miserable in an instant. She was struggling to hide it with the rest of her other facial features, however insignificant they might be, but her deep eyes gave everything away.

Then she spoke after giving a smirk, "can't we just talk about something else?"

There was... a faint distance between him and her at that moment. It was as though she was shutting him out from what was happening to her. This interested him; he couldn't help but want to know.

He made a cleft on his forehead to show her he wanted answers. "Why?"

She looked vexed for a bit at his curiosity, but soon it gave way to a sigh and another smirk. "Because, there's nothing to talk about." She looked away. "There's nothing exciting going on between us lately_. _And knowing you, it'll be boring to talk about _that_, right?"

_You suck as a liar._"There's nothing else to talk about? Oh come on Tomoyo, you can act better than that." He momentarily praised himself for that flash of cleverness. "C'mon, there must be something good going on with you two. What happened to 'Love's filled with excitement everyday'?"

She rolled her eyes in mild impatience. "I said there's nothing, alright?"

He clasped his hands together and swerved his face towards her. "Pleeease?"

"There's no use begging. I'm not telling."

"Isn't sharing what friends do?"

"I'm yet to define you as a 'friend', you hentai."

The blond was a bit offended by her blunt words, but knowing Tomoyo he ignored that slight disturbance he felt. "Com'on, I've shared my problem with Kyou, and isn't it only fair that you share your problem?"

She faced him with a highbrow, sort of winced and pushed his disturbingly close face away. "There's no stopping you, is there...?"

He got her to crack? That easily? "Uh...there we go, I got it." This was the perfect question for the moment: "How are things going with Okazaki lately?"

"I told you, there's nothing," she said, kind of expecting something new, "just that we spent half of the week not seeing each other since I was busy with the student council. The other half went to other school activities."

What the heck? So Tomoyo didn't have time for Okazaki anymore. That was a minor cause of alarm for Youhei since he would not bear the idea of not seeing his own (soon-to-have, he reminded himself) girl even for an hour. What more a week, like his friend? But, Okazaki's laid-back personality didn't demand for things every day. That included the girl sitting opposite to him. Just knowing the fact that she loved him was enough, as what he told Youhei one time. So it wasn't that much of a thing to worry about, after all.

"Well, that's a bummer," he said, trying to act his best as he slurped in some soup. "You didn't see each other for a long time." As though it wasn't obvious enough.

He thought she would react the way he imagined, but instead of frowning she curved one side of her lips. A wry smile. "But that's good, I suppose," she said.

It was confusing to hear something like that coming from Tomoyo. "What do you mean by 'good'?" He beetled his forehead. "You saying that not seeing the _only _important guy you have is a good thing?"

"In a way, yes. It's a good way to cool off." She looked at him for a while and tilted her head. "You see, Tomoya and I have been, How should I say this...?" She blinked, "..._Unstable _lately."

Unstable? He leaned forward in disbelief. "Wait, you guys are on the rocks?"

She nodded to that cliché remark. "You can say it like that."

It wasn't exactly the problem Youhei expected her to be hiding but apparently, it was something very serious. Okazaki and Tomoyo had always been a charming couple. Why had problems now? He was able to express his feelings only in one word. "How?"

And like that, she started twiddling her thumbs. "Well uh, it's sort of like... No, wait. Um, err..." Then she looked a bit frustrated and let out a sigh afterwards.

This was very strange. The Sakagami Tomoyo he knew had always been a straightforward person who spoke her mind. But that night was different. Tomoyo was now even worse than his class _iinchou, _Kyou's precious little twin sister, whenever she was going to check his school attendance. To put it simply, it was such a dilemma that it was something she couldn't find the right word for. From that point on, he knew he had to do something.

But before he could, his first word was cut in half by the same person he wanted to help out. "... Okay, it goes like this. Listen very carefully now and I don't want this getting out of your room." She stared at him with her serious and cool look. "You understand, Sunohara?"

He nodded. "Yeah, sure." Letting this out might be the death of him so he had no choice but to agree.

She took in a deep breath first. "One of us doesn't like the other one that much anymore..." She looked at the window, contemplating the spattering of rain. "One of us is looking for someone else, I think."

She was _clearly _talking about Okazaki. That two-timing son of a... he wanted another girl!

Raising his eyebrows, Youhei asked, "Someone else? Who?" Tomoyo continued. Now, a look that seemed to pity herself came on her face.

"Someone close. Someone who was always there." She shrugged. "Someone who's... better, I guess."

It was an understatement to say that there were a lot of possibilities. Okazaki may not have noticed it, but he _was _a very attractive guy. It could have been anybody, really. It could have been Nagisa-chan. Okazaki met her first before Tomoyo and they always had their time doing club activities together.

There were also the other theater club girls, Fujibayashi and Ichinose. Kyou's twin may have been very shy but she's fairly attractive and she had good grades. As for Ichinose, even though she completely ignored Youhei the first time they met (because of Okazaki), she was very, _very _beautiful with a well-built figure that made any boy drool easily. She was really smart too, given her reputation as the school genius. So based on the facts that Okazaki knew Fujibayashi since last year, and Ichinose maybe much more before that, looking at how they treated each other in the theater club, Youhei had concluded that they could also be one of the possibilities. But they were still, in the strictest sense, possibilities.

And also, unless Okazaki had developed a taste for the same gender instead, that person could be the only person he should _never _get it on with. Kyou.

"No way," he said to cheer her (and himself) up despite the possible truth. "There's no one better than any of you two and you shouldn't worry about it. Just let it slide for a while and if your relationship as lovers is going downhill, then all you have to do is to make a decision and-"

"I already have," she interjected. "I've already made a decision." She then frowned. "But..."

"But what?"

"... I don't know if it is the right one."

Tomoyo was such a good person. And he was dumb enough to not realize that the reason she brought soup for Okazaki was to reconcile with him and fix things. She was good because she still wanted their relationship to flourish and continue on, and all she needed at that moment was someone to push her on with it.

"Don't worry, you did the right thing," he said in an encouraging tone, "That's good. I'm not saying that this problem's not serious; it is. But it's so simple that it'd be sad to let it stress you out and stuff. This is just a small problem and it'll blow over. So don't worry, you'll get over this."

Her face became sort of hopeful, more like the Tomoyo he knew. "You really think so?"

_Relationship guru, Sunohara Youhei..._

"I know so."

_... Has a nice ring to it. _Maybe he could turn this service into a business someday.

"What should I do now?" She asked with a glint of hope in her blue eyes.

"Make that right decision happen." He _still _couldn't believe how awesome he sounded.

"And how do I know that it is the right one before I do it?"

And to think that he was giving this advice to a smart person like Tomoyo...

"The right decision is the one you think is right." He grinned in a bid to show off his relationship prowess. "The one you want to take."

... And that could easily be called his crowning moment of KOOL.

She stayed silent for a while, and thought about it. She started nodding to herself. "You're right. I, I should have told you sooner..."

"That's fine, that's fine," he said, milking the coolness of what he was saying for all it's worth.

Then, she smiled. A friendly, caring one. "Thank you, Youhei."

He smiled too, stopping a bit after noting that she called him with his first name in the most sincere voice he had ever heard from her. There was no sarcasm or grudge involved, just gratitude. "Sure, no prob." There was something else to add. "Also, you should remember happier times," he said. "Like when I brought you and Okazaki to some part of town to beat up those..."

Her smiled disappeared to that unfinished sentence. "What did you say?"

_Oh crap, I shouldn't have said that! _"Er- I meant, the time I brought you guys to that cafe. Remember that?"

She nodded, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then start remembering stuff like those. They'll make you feel better."

He guessed that the more she thought of Okazaki, the more she would think of how much she loved him.

"Sure," she said. "I'd like to ask you something though," She said without looking.

He was looking into his soup bowl, wondering how he would get rid of that excess orange liquid. "We've been doing Q&A for the last hour now so I'm not surprised."

He took a glance at her and he stopped in mid-sequence. What greeted him were two pools of blue that were in a way he had never seen before, at least on her…

She said in a breathy, almost thankful tone, "…Why did you save me?"

Time seemed to stop when he realized that the way she said it evoked the image of a library in his mind. For once, the ever-serious and very straightforward Sakagami Tomoyo was nervous.

He twisted his head towards her. "Huh?"

Youhei said that because even if everything about the whole moment at that time was strange, he never remembered an instance where he saved anyone.

She was now looking away. "I asked why you saved me back then."

"When was that?"

"The time those delinquents got in during the Founder's Festival."

After some minutes spent on contemplating, he got it. Now that she mentioned it, he could still easily conjure it up in his mind. A group of delinquents coming in through the gates, waving bats and crowbars around like crazy and threw the whole festival into chaos. When he got that clear image in his mind, he facepalmed, embarrassed that he might have had a case of early dementia.

It was what he just talked about thirty minutes ago. To him, it was _still _the bear guy's fault.

"Why this all of the sudden?" He thought that she would notice that too so he shifted the talk away from him with that.

"Just answer the question."

What could he answer? He didn't do that much anyway. "Well, that's because it's… I dunno, I just felt that I should at the time." He looked away. "Okazaki could have saved you. He just had his hands full at the time."

After saying that, Youhei still remembered with bitterness the time he went running around the halls with Okazaki nowhere in sight.

"I kicked you all the time and broke almost every bone in your body…" She sort of shuddered. "… but you came to my rescue with a bat."

"So?" When he saw Tomoyo surrounded at all corners, her life in total danger, he just felt something jump in his chest and found himself picking up a bat and running at them. "It was the right thing to do, and so I did it."

She gave a side glance. "Even when they outnumbered and beat the pulp out of you?"

It seemed like her voice was the cause of why his back started acting up again. He should have had Misae give him more pain-relieving pads. "That's nothing; my soccer stitches were worse," he said with some pride. "They were going to hurt you. I just happened to be there so I came in and beat them all with a bat.

He grinned, hiding his confusion at why Okazaki wasn't even there for her at that time. He didn't know… "Can't leave a helpless girl like you all defenseless then, can I?" …And he didn't _want _to know. Okazaki should've explained himself. What a bastard, not saying anything for so long like it never really happened. And he just _**had **_to leave the job of covering everything up to Youhei, didn't he?

She folded her arms, pouting. Another first for her. "I could've handled it myself."

"You certainly did not." He said, "When I got there, they surrounded you."

"There were too many of them."

Not being able to make himself 'The guy who saved _the _Sakagami', he was… dismayed, at the least. "…Pfeh, I guess you're right.

"So…" She faced him. "That was why you saved me? Because it was the right thing to do?" She blinked as if he had said too few. "That's all?"

She seemed to be dissatisfied with that reason. Why was that? Telling her the details _he _knew might make things go awry. He didn't know but he knew one thing: He could fool around with her for a bit to cheer her up.

"Well, to be honest, that was kind of like a part of it," he said with a grin, "but I would have even done it in hopes for a free kiss from you, if I had wanted."

He expected a foot jammed up his face after that, but something else happened. In seconds, a crimson color flared up her cheeks. "Y-you pervert…"

_...What was that reaction about? _"What? I just told you I would risk my neck for a kiss," in a joking way that could have passed itself off as a (very) bad punch line. "I was just kidding, sheesh."

"Yes," she was still flared up, "but, still…"

He bent a brow. "Still what?"

After he saw her mumble 'Nah' or something like that in her mouth, she shook her head. "Nothing."

Youhei wanted to know but, Tomoyo wouldn't tell him anything even if he did ask. That was why his attention was brought to his soup bowl. He gulped all of it in. Now he realized, _three or four bowls. _He lived through three or four fricking bowls of dry Cucurbita soup that numbed his mouth for the whole hour. _What did she put in this soup anyway? _That was fine, though.

At least he got something good to eat, right?

Then he asked, "Anything else you would like to say which you would probably end with loose knots?"

This time, she only smiled. "Can I say thank you?"

"Thank you, huh? You're welcome, then."

It was so fast that Youhei didn't even grasp the context of what she said. A thank you for saving her. It felt so good inside. He heard those two words from most of the people he knew, and he wouldn't mind it every time he did. But when he finally heard it from Sakagami, it felt… different. Good different. Even without understanding anything, those two words made him feel warm amidst that cold, rainy night…

"You want more soup?" She finally offered after the still silence that they both seemed to have enjoyed.

…More soup helped with that too.

He handed over his bowl. "Sure."

She was going to pour in soup when she suddenly froze, surprised.

"Oh, dear," she said.

"What is it?" He thought that a fly got in the soup. "Problem?"

She had a sort of disgruntled face as he realized what contributed to her reaction.

He could have guessed that it was because of a bug getting into the soup, but apparently it was far beyond what he had thought when a large, empty soup bowl was sitting proudly on his table.

For a minute neither made a sound.

_We ate all the soup? _That was pretty bad, he thought. It was supposed to be for a guy who was down with the very common but vicious cold, not two bored people in a boys' dormitory who were waiting for the cold rain to stop its cruel downpour. How was Tomoyo supposed to patch things up with Okazaki now?

He was silent for a while, trying to think up of some cheap explanation to show the 'bright side' of the whole matter. "… So we ..." There was still nothing in his brain so he gulped. "…Sorry 'bout that."

And he felt incredibly stupid for apologizing. Not that he shouldn't, but as stupid as he looked, sounded and acted all the time he did have some decency in knowing that he had just eaten his best friend's food, prepared by his girlfriend.

However, she simply gave a nonchalant look, and nodded to herself, "it's okay."

Youhei's eyes widened in surprise. "Okay?" He blinked twice to make sure it wasn't a cruel joke she would say before the kicking would start. "I just ate all the soup for your boyfriend and still, okay?"

She made a dry smile. "It's not like the soup had something that would put the safety of the world in stake or something like that." She looked at him with assuring eyes. "Tomoya'll be fine, I guess. I'll just make him another batch tomorrow."

_Well, you are right about that one…_He sighed of relief, knowing he had escaped death for the umpteenth time. "And I thought you were going to-"

"But was it good?"

It was so sudden that he flinched, thinking she was going to ask 'What did you say?' "Wh-what do you mean…?" The drops of sweat that dripped down the side of his face said it all.

"The soup." She asked stubbornly. "Was it good?"

Well, his whole mouth was as dry as desert dirt. He thought that he needed a whole jug of water to make the aftertaste go away…

"Of course it was." He lifted his bowl. "Why would I slurp down four of these if it wasn't?" He had no idea how many bowls of soup he had had, but it didn't sound important when none was left for Okazaki to taste.

After his contemplation about soup, Youhei saw his lady companion/potential killer nod, and then look at her big empty bowl which was supposedly for her lover/his best friend. This, due to his short attention span, bored him so he turned away to have a change of scenery. There he noticed that there was no more water pounding on the walls. Torrential rain wasn't pounding on the windows anymore. The downpour had stopped.

"Rain's gone," He said.

She looked at that direction too. "Hey, it did."

"Time for you to go home now."

Well, she did say that she would stay only until the rain ended, right? But, it wasn't like he was excited for her to leave or anything. He only wanted her to get home before it got too dark.

She nodded. "Yeah, I will."

Then again, it was because of people like what she had used to be before that most people went home before dark.

She stood up, and his actions followed suit like it was supposed to be coordinated like that. She then bowed her head. He almost did that, too.

"Thanks for letting me spend some time here, Sunohara."

"Hell," he said, "I thought you called this place a dump."

"And I recalled you proclaiming that this place as your 'manly bachelor pad of coolness'."

He irked with a bit of humor, "I never said 'coolness'."

Then Youhei and Tomoyo laughed, even though they weren't sure what was funny with what they said in the first place. It was just happiness, just between the two of them. They would take anything that could be considered as funny; it wouldn't make a difference whether it was the funniest joke or the most pathetic one. As long as the other one laughed, it was okay. It was... a connection they both felt in themselves. A connection the both of them would attribute to 'Kindered spirits', or something like that. Perhaps, maybe even something more.

After that, they exchanged nods, and she was going to leave for the door…

He pointed. "Hey, you forgot something."

She glanced behind. "Huh?" The large bowl was still on the table. She glanced at it, and made a waving gesture. "Nah, keep it for a while."

Wait. What would he use a huge bowl for?

He said, "No way."

"I said, keep it for a while." She hooked a thumb, going all witty. "Don't worry, I'll take it back. Someday."

Then she opened the door as he was going to make a second objection. "Thanks and good night, Sunohara."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, accepting the burden of a big soup bowl. "Goodbye to 'ya, too."

At once, she right at the middle of his doorframe. He thought she was going to take her bowl with her (Good!) but instead she looked back at him with a sweet smile.

"Don't say good-by, Youhei," she said with a strange sense of serenity in her voice that Youhei didn't even notice the way she addressed him.

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Because," She made a sideward nod to point it out. "there's no such thing as a 'good-bye' in eternity."

_Well... that was weird._"And where the heck did you get that? You high or somethin'?"

She shook her head. "Not even the slightest bit. Just quoting a novel I read."

That was one of the reasons why he stuck to reading manga_._"Okay, fine. I'll just say 'G'night', instead." He waved her away. "G'night."

She tilted her head. "Good night."

Before that door closed, he saw one eye looking at him. It was just like her expression before she left. But strangely, worry was streaking in that pupil as well. She shouldn't worry about anything; unless he wanted to have a shorter lifespan, he would never break her bowl. Then the door shut, the knob making a click. One, faint click.

After tidying his kotatsu and picking up some trash to make up for his improper accommodation of the first girl that was _not named Misae _to enter his room (even though it was too late and unnecessary), the reality of him being along again sank in. Deafening in-room silence, the noise of cars passing idly by outside, and the sound of the chatter from next door. All of those showed just how lonely he really was. He had realized that it was a very good thing Tomoyo just so happened to have passed by. At last, he had a companion who he could talk with, tell all his sentiments to, and give advice to. He didn't care about why she came, who she came for and what she wanted to accomplish. He was just happy that she came.

About the advice part, he really didn't want to act in the 'Physician-and-patient' routine; he wanted to act in a 'friend-to-friend' routine. Everything he had done for her that night wasn't really for anything else special.

It was just for an effort to reconnect to a person he should have been friends with a long time ago.

Also, Tomoyo appreciated it enough to leave him a gift (or another load on his back).

He lifted the dirty bowl up, planning to have the dorm lady wash it. Then he noticed that there was a square, upside-down piece of paper on its underside. It was a pink, beautifully written sticky note. And it was scented with Lavender too, despite it being under a bowl of hot pumpkin soup for an hour.

He took it off and read it.

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><p><strong><em>Well, that's the second chapter for you. Third one's already written up and I''m going to upload it in three or four days time. To all those who read this chapter, thank you very much and again, please review!<em>**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: To the very handsome/beautiful person reading this fic right now, I swear that I, with all honesty, DO NOT OWN CLANNAD. I f I did… well, that goes the neighborhood.**_

_**Again, many thanks to Chromate for beta reading this fic. It wouldn't be as good as it is now without this person's help.**_

_**Author's note: Thanks to all those who stuck out and read this fic until it's very last chapter. It's been a short run but, it's been fun. Well, enough with that blabber. Onwards with the last chapter of 'Soup' and to many more of my fics beyond!  
><strong>_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 3: Grim reality<strong>_

"So," the phrase was cut in half by mocked sniffles, "what're your plans for today?"

"Shut up."

The next morning, Youhei was now on his bed while Okazaki was sitting on the Kotatsu, holding a box of tissue as though it was the only one left in the world. His friend had just come, telling Youhei that they should just skip school that day.

"Okay," the blonde grinned. "How 'bout I call you 'Rudolph'?"

He glared at him. "You assho-_Fwaaatchoo!_" After that, he emptied another box of tissue.

It was a good thing they decided to skip school, or else Youhei wouldn't have enjoyed Okazaki's time of weakness. Now he could exact sweet vengeance for all the stuff the bastard did to him. All because Youhei had something to make fun of Tomoya with…

"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer… He had a big, shiny nose…" He sang with all his emotions, clearly enjoying the devastated look on his best friend's face.

It seemed that last night's bad weather, combined with his condition, endowed Okazaki with a humorously crimson nose.

"You're lucky I'm sick, you-_Fwatchoo!_"

"Bless you," he said casually.

The boy with the mauve hair sneezed again, and laid his head flat on the table.

"So, Okazaki…" Youhei sat up. "… How was last night at your place?" He wanted to hear how his friend suffered the cold, all alone.

"It was horrible," He said, his voice only muffled by his stuffy nose, "Kept sneezing all night, couldn't sleep, and very tired. I had a lot of stuff going on yesterday and it pooped me out. So please, do me a favor and stop annoying me for a while, will 'ya?"

"Okay, sure." He had to do something. "But I have to tell you something, first."

Upon this, Okazaki looked at attention. "Tell me."

Youhei took out the washed bowl from one of his drawers and the note and put them on the table. The moment they landed, his friend's eyes couldn't help but follow. "Your girlfriend came over here last night."

In an instant, he jammed to a halt. "… Say what?"

_You're so slow._"I said, Tomoyo came over last night." That was the first time he ever referred to her as such in public, or at least in the company of another person.

Youhei saw Okazaki's eyes lock onto him, showing much interest.

He muttered incoherently, "So she really did it…"

"Eh?" The blonde didn't get most of it. "Whaddya' say?"

Okazaki shook his head. "Nothin'…"

There was a moment of silence between the two friends. The one with blue hair stayed in silent thought for five minutes, and finally made himself sober. Then he finally asked,

"… What did she do here?"

"Oh, nothing." The blonde said matter-of-factly. "It was raining last night and she was going to your place to bring you soup." He pointed. "She left me that bowl right there."

Okazaki was going to open his mouth.

"But then," Youhei cut him off, "We had a little chat with each other and 'accidentally' ate all your soup." He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Sorry 'bout that."

"I-"

"Wait, there's more." He took out the piece of paper, planning to make some fun out of it. "She even left mister lovey-hubby a note. It says: 'I love you'. How cheesy is that? Who'd knew that Tomoyo was into this kind of stuff; it's crazy, I never expected her to do things like this…"

Then he started snickering, then laughing, then bellowing until it became so hard to resist that he rolled off his bed and fell on the floor, even though he himself knew that the context of the situation wasn't worth to be laughed at that much. Yet, just imagining _the _Sakagami Tomoyo, who had beaten him up for countless times, saying cheesy things like 'I love you' with her flushed face and timid voice only made him laugh harder.

"Sunohara…" Okazaki said, his voice muzzled by the insidious laughing.

"Fwahahahaha…!"

"Sunohara, I have to say something."

"Fwahahahahahaha…!"

"Sunohara, listen for a damn moment, will 'ya!"

That outburst put a cork to whatever he was doing. In shame, Youhei looked down.

"…" He tried the only thing he knew to get him out of this kind of mess. "…Hehehe, sorry about that." It was trying to look absentminded and apologizing afterwards. "What were you going to say?"

The other guy took a deep breath. "Tomoyo and I broke up yesterday."

Suddenly, an awkward sense of stillness occupied the room. He looked at Tomoya and vice versa. His eyes were not lying or mocking him. He knew, given his history with this guy, that he was serious this time and there was no hiding in there. He meant what he said.

Two minutes later and he still didn't understand. "…Wh-what?"

"I told you, we broke up. Split, gone apart, all that stuff."

Suddenly, those words just now sent electrified jolts to his mind. He remembered the conversation last night. Okazaki and Tomoyo's relationship was in deep trouble, probably with a third party or something like that involved. Which probably meant…

His eyes widened. It started to make sense now.

"How could you?" Youhei exclaimed, putting all his emotion in that very sentence. "You asshole, how could you do that to her?"

"What the…?" Okazaki opened his mouth in bafflement. "What are you talking about?"

He knew exactly knew what to say. "You broke up with Tomoyo so you can go chase another girl!" He suddenly went depressed. "I… I never thought you actually had it in you. But now…"

The blond took a good look into that two-timer's eyes. They were still in the state of disbelief, probably due to the revelation of their owner's sin. Like a shot, Youhei was filled with conviction to make him pay.

"…Who is it?" He asked his mauve-haired friend, "Is it someone I know?"

"Sunohara, what are you-"

"Don't play dumb with me, Okazaki. Who is it?" He took on a disgusted look. "Is it Ichinose? Are you going out with her behind Tomoyo's back?"

"Sunohara, listen to me for a-"

He was feeling like he wanted to jam his fist into Tomoya's face. "Is it Nagisa-chan? Man, I never knew you wanted more than her family's bread; how could you?"

"God damn it, listen-"

"Aw, shut up!" Youhei's blue eyes sparkled. "Is it one of the twins? Which one? Boy, if it's Kyou I'll, I'll… I'll make you regret you ever met me!"

"You idiot!"

In a fast maneuver, Okazaki jabbed his finger in the blonde's chest.

"Where did you get your brain from, a cereal box?" He went on saying, "I wasn't going out with anybody else, only Tomoyo, you dumb prick. And, and…" He seemed to have spat. "…it was _she _who broke up with me, not the other way around!"

The blond was shocked at this sudden turn of events, and it took a good long while for Tomoya's words to get into his little brain. It was Tomoyo who was going out with someone else? In so much shock, he could do nothing but drop his chin. "…Huh?"

"She was the one who broke up with me, dumbass," Okazaki looked away broodingly, "so don't go throwing around accusations if you don't know what's really going on, or else... You understand?"

Youhei still kept quiet, now not only due to shock but also, great embarrassment.

He gave a sigh, letting off some steam. "Anyway, Tomoyo and I split up yesterday. I wanted to know why but she told me straight up that she loves another guy. Made me look like a total idiot... like… like you." The blond wasn't sure, but he noticed the last few words his friend spoke was stressed with a hint of annoyance that he seldom heard from him.

_So... she was the one who wanted someone better?_

"Apparently, it was someone she knew as long as me," he went on, with regret tracing in his tone. "If I had known this would happen… I would have never hooked up with her."

Youhei still couldn't believe it. The problem wasn't Okazaki, it was Tomoyo. She was the one who would destroy their relationship all along. How could she do such a thing? Okazaki was a great guy, even he had to admit it, so why did she dump him now? She told Youhei that she wanted to patch this all up and that she was going to make 'the right decision', but now…this? Did she love that other man so much to make her willing to ditch the only man he thought she could ever love?

He was... speechless after what was said. He had a blank, empty expression as he stood up and sank depressingly on his bed. The sheets seemed to partake in his sorrow as they sank down in accordance with his slumping down.

Youhei breathed out heavily. "...I, I can't believe this... How can this...?"

"I dunno, man." Okazaki took out a manga book from the blond's shelf and started reading as though it would whisk his troubles away. "But… Geh, I just wanna forget about it."

The two men looked at each other as the air of silence filled the room. Okazaki looked plainly pissed; the sort that people made when they lost their lottery ticket only to find out that it actually had the winning combination. Youhei, on the other hand, wasn't. He was disillusioned, out of his mind, crestfallen. His face just showed plain devastation that he would have laughed at had he seen himself in the mirror. It was just too much to endure. In the depths of his mind, he kept asking himself all the right questions but they only gave the same, unacceptable answer.

After realizing that everything that happened last night was for totally nothing, all he could do was sigh.

"So," he said in a depressed manner, "what are you gonna do now?"

Okazaki raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"You can't just let this slip by, can 'ya?"

"Oh yes, I will."

"What the… why?"

"There's nothing we can do now, you hear? It's already happened so just shut up before you make me more pissed."

Great, now his friend was depressed. He had to do at least do something to make that sorrow go away. It was so strong that it made a heavy, kind of arid atmosphere. It was suffocating him.

"Since it's already there," his friend went on, "I should just kinda move on, I guess."

Move on? Move on? Was that it? How could Okazaki say that after his girlfriend had dumped him for another guy?

"You know what," Youhei said, "I think I know something that can make you feel better." Even he knew what he would say was a harebrained idea, but if his friend wanted to move on, then he should help.

"Oh, this will be exciting…" The other guy said sardonically.

"We find the guy and beat him up Okazaki and Sunohara style." It was impossible, but he just wanted him to laugh. "C'mon, it'll be fun."

And laugh Okazaki did. It was a loud holler that expressed such humor at whatever situation it was in. Calling a beating up technique as 'Okazaki and Sunohara' style did sound a bit funny.

"Well, it's fine by me; I'll beat you up with no trouble at all," His friend said with a smile. "But you, I dunno. If _you _have the ability to beat yourself up, then go call me. We'll do it by all means."

_Did that just go out right?_"…What?"

Okazaki looked gravely at him. "You know the real reason I came here for?"

Youhei was starting to feel that faint, queasy feeling of anxiety at his friend's sudden change of emotion. Even that big red nose didn't help to lighten that moment. "…I still don't understand."

"You don't have to. In fact, I don't really expect you to, anyway." With that, Okazaki rose and reached the door in slow motion, taking his time to reach the exit, cracking his fists.. He turned when Sunohara was still trying to figure out what was happening, and he muttered the last words he said to him.

"Goodbye, Sunohara." He made a spitting sound. "Good luck."

The door opened, and then closed without another word, making that faint click he heard last night. He swore it was about something that he couldn't put his finger on. But he knew one thing: Everything that had happened was grim reality, even if the whole situation seemed like it was shot out of a cheap radio drama.

**Fin**

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><p><strong><em>Well, there it goes. The ending of my short and sweet fic, 'Soup'. Again, thanks to all those who read it and I hope that more will read my future fics as I have another Clannad story in the works. I hope you have enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's been a blast. Also, please review!<em>**


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